Tulips bloomed in Scotland this week--and are now breaking the soil in Alaska! Though our "official"
garden in Anchorage, AK is still buried in snow, the word arrived yesterday from Sterling, on the Kenai Peninsula:

Sterling, Alaska
04/09/98
"Today three tulips are starting to break through the earth in our test plot in the school yard. We planted
some tulips close to our school building, and they have been up for a month! We didn't think there would be such
a big difference in the emergence of the two groups of tulips." (shepner@kpbsd.k12.ak.us)

Challenge Question # 7
"Why do you think the Scotland garden (60.52 N) bloomed at roughly the same time that gardens in Fairlee,
Vermont (43.91 ), White Bear Lake, Minnesota (45.09 ) and Winifred, Montana (47.63) were just emerging?"

"Our first tulips have opened. We are so happy this happened before spring break. This is about two weeks
earlier than last year. We have been working on a spread sheet measuring the size of the plant, the daily average
temperature, and how much it has grown each week. We noticed at the plants grew 4.5 centimeters the week we had
record breaking warm weather. They did not grow at all the week we had a cold snap."Doreen Murphey
Cranston, Rhode Island
smart028@ride.ri.net